After getting distracted for over a week, I’m back on my review of Autofocus.
I started with a fresh list this morning with twelve tasks which I’ve been adding to thoughout the day. I now have nearly five pages of tasks in a 31-lines-to-the-page notebook. In total that is 152 tasks. Nothing like starting small!
The good news is that I’ve done all but one of the original twelve together with 52 other tasks, leaving a mere 89 undone. That is definitely progress.
In fact this is progressing exactly as I remember it progressing when I first started using Autofocus. One starts off with the easy routine tasks. That’s not a problem, because it gets all the routines up and running again if they’ve been allowed to lapse (which they have).
Once the routines are sorted, the next stage is to start tackling some projects. As with the routines Autofocus starts with the easier ones and gets them up and running before starting on the more difficult ones. This is the right order because it’s clearing the way for the more difficult ones.
I’m talking as if it’s the system itself which is making the decisions rather than me myself. And this is exactly what it feels like. The system is imposing order and consistency on me. I could no doubt have written out a detailed plan to get everything in my life sorted out, but writing the plan would probably have taken all day and it would immediately collapse with the arrival of some new circumstances.
Autofocus handles all this for you - if you’ll let it. All you have to do is scan the list according to the rules, get prompted by “standing out” to work on a task for as long as you like, and then continue following the rules.
For instance, I had no intention of writing a blog post today, but here it is. Autofocus prompted me, and it’s done!
Afternote:
At the end of the first day I have just short of six pages, consisting of 184 tasks, of which I have done 94.